UNIT 3
PROSE
GALILEO
Pre-reading task :
Answer the questions your teacher asks you.
a.) Name some heavenly bodies.
Answer: Planets, stars, moon, comets, satellite are some heavenly bodies.
b.) What is astronomy?
Answer: Astronomy is the branch of science which studies everything in the universe and beyond the earth’s atmosphere.
c.) Name an Indian astronomer.
Answer: Aryabhatta was an Indian astronomer.
d.) What is a Planetarium? There is one in Karnataka. Where is it?
Answer: A Planetarium is a theatre which is for the purpose of education and entertaining shows regarding astronomy and the night sky.
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium is in Bengaluru.
e.) What instrument do astronomers use?
Answer: Astronomers use telescope.
1.) Some sentences given below are NOT TRUE. Correct them and write them down. Discuss the points with your partner.
a.) Learned men have always believed that the earth moved round the sun. (T / NT)
Answer: Learned men earlier believed that the earth was fixed in space the sun and all other heavenly bodies went round it.
b.) The first telescope ever made was invented by Lippershey. (T / NT)
Answer: True
c.) Galileo thought a telescope would help him in his studies. (T / NT)
Answer: True
d.) Galileo watched the heavenly bodies in the clear night sky. (T / NT)
Answer: True
e.) The people of Venice also turned the “Looking Tube” towards the night sky. (T / NT)
Answer: They took it to the top of high buildings and looked through it at the ships out in the sea.
f.) Galileo went on improving his telescopes. (T / NT)
Answer: True
g.) Copernicus had already said what Galileo was saying. (T / NT)
Answer: True
h.) The Church set Galileo free because it finally agreed with his ideas. (T / NT)
Answer: He was set free because he was old.
2.) Talk to your partner about the points raised in these questions and then write down what you said.
a.) How is our knowledge about the earth different from the knowledge of people, even learned men, some four hundred years ago?
Answer: Today we all know the fact that the earth is a planet revolving round the sun. But there was a time not many centuries ago, when even learned men believed that the earth was fixed in space and the sun and all other heavenly bodies went round it.
b.) Who corrected people’s thinking about our earth in the 17th century?
Answer: An Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei corrected people’s thinking about our earth in the 17th century.
c.) What is Lippershey’s contribution to astronomy?
Answer: It was Hans Lippershey who invented the first telescope. Telescope is theinstrument with which astronomers watch the skies. The telescope makes distant objects appear to be near and magnified several times
d.) What is the Milky Way?
Answer: The Milky Way is the broad white band of light which can be seen across the sky at night and found that it contained millions and millions of faint stars.
e.) In what ways is the moon similar to the earth?
Answer: The moon’s surface which seems so smooth has high mountains and deep valleys just like those on the earth.
f.) Why was Galileo appointed professor at the University of Padua?
Answer: The ruler of Venice was shown the instrument invented by Galileo which pleased and impressed him and this is how the ruler appointed Galileo as the professor at the University of Padua.
g.) What were the two important discoveries Galileo made with his much improved telescope?
Answer: With the help of his much improved telescope, the first most important discovery of Galileo was that the planet Jupiter had little moons that revolved round it. The second discovery was that he found that the sun had spots on it and that the spots slowly moved across its face. He found from this that the sun, like the earth, spins round itself!
h.) Who had made discoveries similar to Galileo’s in the 16th century?
Answer: Copernicus, a Polish astronomer had made discoveries similar to Galileo’s in the 16th century.
i.) What trouble did Galileo bring upon himself by telling truths about the heavenly bodies?
Answer: Galileo’s new teaching caused problem to the learned men because it meant that all their teaching was wrong. It was then, the learned opposed Galileo and many of them became his enemies. As if this was not enough, he was landed into trouble with the Church because his ideas about the sun and the moon were different from that of Bible.
j.) What is the ironic story about Galileo facing the Inquisition?
Answer: Galileo was presented before the court and asked to kneel down and declare that the earth didn’t move around the sun. As Galileo didn’t want to face the torture, he did as he was told by kneeling down but when he rose from his knees, he whispered to himself that the earth still moved around the sun.
Focus on Grammar :
3.) Rewrite the first sentence of paragraph 2 in three sentences.
a.) A man called Hans Lippershey, a native of Holland, invented the telescope.
b.) He invented the telescope in the year 1608.
c.) The telescope makes distant objects appear to be near and magnified several times over.
Rewrite this sentence in two sentences. (Each sentence must have seven words.)
Galileo’s was the first telescope that was ever turned towards the stars.
a.) Galileo’s telescope was the first to turn towards the stars.
b.) No one had invented such telescope before him.
Re-order the jumbled words to make a sentence:
4.) Seventeen words are given below. For the last two words only clues are given. Make a sentence using these words.
earth / but / include / trip / on / expensive / does / free / the / living / is / it / a / around / sun / e _ _ _ _ / y_ _ _.
a.) Write down your sentence punctuating it.
Answer: Living on the earth is expensive but it does include a free trip around the sun every year.
c.) What does the word “it” refer to?
Answer: “It” refers to the living on the earth.
d.) Which word in your sentence should you emphasize? Read the sentence again stressing this word.
Answer: It does include a free trip around the sun every year.
e.) Did you get the joke? How many “free trips” have you made so far?
Answer: I have made 13 trips so far.
7.) Writing – Write a paragraph on “The Telescope” using the ideas in the text.
Answer: The telescope is the instrument with which astronomers watch the skies. It makes distant objects appear to be near and magnified several times over. The first telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey, a native of Holland in 1608. When Galileo came to know the invention, he thought of making a telescope for himself and soon he made a telescope that was better than Lippershey’s telescope. It was Galileo’s telescope which was the first that was ever turned towards the stars. Galileo kept working on his telescope until he made one which brought objects thirty times nearer. It is because of his telescope, he made important discoveries about the heavenly bodies.
a) Work with your partner and fill in the blanks. Write down the appropriate words in the blanks.
Think of the names of some scientists and their inventions. We praise and honour scientists because their inventions are useful to us. But sometimes a scientist may find a truth about Nature that may not be liked by some people. This is because of our ignorance and prejudice. In olden days, scientists even got into trouble for finding out truths. Galileo was an Italian astronomer. He got into trouble for telling some truths about the heavenly bodies.
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